Various spectrophotometers are known in the prior art, which employ bulk liquid samples such as in vials or tubes. Such systems are unsuitable for many types of measurement in which small liquid volumes are to be analysed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,628,382 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,809,826 disclose systems for handling small drop volumes. These systems have several drawbacks because they involve many automated moving parts such as swing arms, are difficult to effectively clean between samples because the samples are supported in the middle of complex machinery, and appear to be expensive to build and sell.
The present invention aims to overcome these difficulties and to provide greater measurement capabilities than these less versatile instruments.